The puppy was a bit timid because he didn’t know what to make of the cats. The cats were in a similar position, although they mostly ignored him. There was some hissing and some swiping from the cats when he got too close, but overall everything went well! Mostly everyone just relaxed and snoozed a while.

Car rides are very relaxing 🙂

In other news, my parents grabbed a new cone from the vet’s for me and it looks like this will be the solution to my cat’s hot spot problem. I’m keeping a close eye on her to see if she can eat and drink properly with it, but there is no way she can get to her wound now. If it heals up properly now, I’ll be very happy!

It’s raining buckets outside and I’ve been puppysitting the dog. He keeps trying to eat my shoelaces and bite me (playtime!). Except I prefer my shoelaces intact and I don’t like biting much, so I end up squealing like an upset puppy and he stops and gives me a funny look. It’s so cute!

Gave him food and made sure he was calm when I fed him. He got super excited about feeding time in the beginning but it’s getting better! After dinner we went for a walk. He’s super well behaved on the leash (for an excited loving puppy that is) and his fear for cars that pass us at five yards distance is almost gone.

Because his breed is a water dog he doesn’t care one bit about the rain. He was soaked when we got back but his coat hasn’t become water resistant yet, so I tried to dry him off. He was more interested in gnawing on the towel than getting dry.

Now he’s passed out beneath the coffee maker rack. Wonder how long that will last.

Our little adorable fluff ball has been home for almost a week now and he’s doing more than excellent! Already he’s extremely loyal and he walks well on the leash, does most of his business outside or on the fake grass mat during the nights and overall he’s a playful and adorable little thing.

Isn’t he just downright darling?! His fur is still incredibly soft and curly, but when he grows up it will grow a bit greasy. The good thing about this breed is that he requires virtually no care for his coat whatsoever. At best you can douse him with plain water (or let him take a swim) and the dirt just falls right off when he dries up. Brushing is a ‘once in a while’ thing with a coarse brush, but only rarely. Too much brushing isn’t good for him!

He is so incredibly adorable I can’t get enough of him. My parents are going out to a barbecue workshop tonight, so in about half an hour I’m leaving and puppysitting for a couple of hours. It’s still a bit too early to leave him alone for too long.

I’m super happy to be introducing a new category to my blog to file future posts under: dogs! This happy occasion is brought to you by the fact there will be a new dog in our family soon. I do think I need to recap a little though, since I missed out on some things the past 6 months.

To start off with, I haven’t lived at home for 3 years now but I still consider the pets my parents have as ‘our’ pets. It’s still my home after all! When I was 12 we bought a puppy from a really nice breeder of a relatively unknown breed, the Stabyhoun. He was an adorable and incredibly sweet dog who never harmed a fly and protected small children and hunted mice. A loving companion whom we all loved dearly and who grew up happy and healthy.

In February 2014 (this year), on the 20th, when the dog was exactly 13.5 years old to the day, we took him to the vet after he had an episode in the garden. It turned out he had a stroke, and chances of recovery were so slim that we’d just be putting him through misery to keep him around for our sake. The difficult decision was made to put him down, and he was cremated. His ashes are kept in my parents’ living room.

Although my parents said they didn’t want a dog anymore, it was only a month later that they told my sister and I they were looking to get a new puppy. They missed the companionship of a dog and with my father stuck at home on disability and my mother only able to work part time, they have plenty of time to raise a new dog.

This time they opted for a Wetterhoun. It’s an even rarer breed than the Stabyhoun. Full blooded dogs of this breed don’t seem to exceed a population of approximately 1,000 worldwide. The breed faced extinction in WWII and down the line was hit with a disease that killed puppies at 8 weeks old. Careful breeding with the use of DNA programs eradicated the disease, but the breed is still relatively unknown and struggles. There have only been 2 litters in the entire country this year, so far. (I’m talking about the full-blood bred dogs that are registered with the program where inbreeding is avoided. I’m not accounting for non-breeders where people bred the dogs with other breeds, although considering the exclusivity of the breed I doubt there are many who breed them so… recklessly.)

We were lucky to get a call from the breeder and hear that the people who were supposed to get this one male puppy had not returned calls or emails for over 3 weeks. She told us that since there was no point in trying to get in touch with these folks any longer, that we could have the dog if we wanted to. Naturally my parents agreed and my dad went to the breeder to take a look.

The puppy is absolutely adorable. He’s like a little fuzzy bear! The breeder is absolutely excellent. It’s her first time breeding her dogs and therefore her first litter, but you’d never be able to tell! At only 4 weeks old, the puppies have been exposed to all sorts of sounds and noises, the vacuum cleaner, children, even a wild bird her husband shot. The puppies are also being housebroken by encouraging them to do their business on the grass rather than on the floor. I’ve never heard of a breeder investing this much awesome into a litter. But then again, people breed this dog because they loved the breed, not to make money off of it.

He will be coming home on July 31st (less than two weeks!). I’m VERY excited and so are my parents! 🙂 After he had his first round of shots, I’m taking my cats over to my parents’ and let them socialize as early as possible. It shouldn’t be a problem since they got along fine with the other dog all the time.